[Disclaimer: If I owned Lizzie McGuire, you would not be reading this. You'd be my minion. Mwahaha!!
Recap: Gordo enters the reunion and is approached by Parker; Lizzie wonders about her friendship with Gordo; Mysteryboy approaches Parker and Gordo, but to no avail.]
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I cannot believe I'm talking to David Gordon!
She was just the new girl in 5th grade. She'd only gone to school with him for 4 years. She barely talked to him until 8th grade. So to Parker McKenzie, David Gordon was more like a famous guy she'd never meet than a former classmate.
Just calling him was strange enough. Her mind just couldn't make the connection from this Gordo' boy she knew from middle school and the famous director, David Gordon. David Gordon was the wealthy director whose movies she'd go see every Saturday. Gordo was the kid who'd crushed her heart in the middle of their last year at Hillridge Junior High. Mind-boggling didn't begin to describe it.
To the outsiders, their situation was...complex, to say the least. But Parker knew the truth. It was a classic case of mismatched timings. Well, that, and the fact that she'd so brutally rejected him, and the next day, just about everyone was talking about it. But that wasn't Parker! She had these moments, moments where she just wasn't herself. She'd gotten a bad reputation, simply because every gossip-worthy thing she did was so rude and obnoxious: yelled at Lizzie when she sat on Parker's lunchbox, drew all over Miranda's art project, called Gordo short. Maybe the whole time, she just wanted acceptance.
Going to a new school was strange. Your parents keep telling you, Don't worry, you'll make friends! And they say it so much, you start to believe it. That only makes the fall harder when you realize...you have no friends. No one likes you. No one wants to hang out with you and talk about cute boys and complain about mean teachers. You might as well fall off the face of the earth, because no one would care.
She spent her years at Hillridge as a loner. It didn't take long before people realized this and took advantage of it, with juvenile nicknames like Loser McKenzie'. There was one girl who was nice to her, though. Her name was Lizzie McGuire.
So maybe they weren't full-fledged friends who hung out after school and whatnot. But they talked at recess, even if just for a second before Miranda and Gordo called for her again. And that's when Parker first realized she wanted to be friends with Lizzie, Miranda, and Gordo.
But then she screwed up. Lizzie sat on her favorite lunchbox. It cracked, and so did Parker. She hated Lizzie for a few months, but even when she finally forgave the blonde girl, it didn't matter. She and her two best friends now hated her.
After that, it was just a series of mishaps, screw-ups, whatever you want to call them. Rejecting Gordo had to be the worst. And now, here she was, 10 years later, and she still hadn't said she was sorry. Maybe she could subtly slip into the conversation. Now was her chance...
She couldn't. Why? The answer made no sense, but it was this.
She still liked him.
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You don't like, love him or something...right?
Claire let out a dramatic sigh. To her old friend Alix, this was a huffy sigh, an impatient reminder that she had better things to do than answer obvious questions. Only Claire herself knew that this was a sigh of serious, deep thoughts. It's not like anyone realized Claire was capable of serious, deep thoughts. Of course not. She was just your typical teenybopper-all-grown-up situation, a little cheerleading girl stuck in a woman's body. And of course, Claire was definitely not capable of loving.
Of course I don't love him, she snapped back. What do you take me for, Alix? A considerate, faithful wife? ...You're the only one.
Jeez, sorry, Alix scoffed. I thought maybe you'd grown up in the past ten years or something. I guess that's just too much to ask of such a ungrateful wench such as yourself. With an eyeroll, she stomped away in typical ugh-you-obnoxious-dirk fashion.
Why did everything have to be about growing up? Everyone thinks that they've just grown up so much in the past few years. Uh huh, whatever. Less than six years ago, these were the same people who totally abused every nerdy kid they laid their eyes on. Now they were just oh-so-mature. Give me a break.
But then what were her feelings for Larry? So she knew she was capable of loving. But was she capable of loving...Larry Tudgeman?
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Well, I guess I better get going, Brooke said in her usual overly cheerful voice. I'll see you around, Kate! She trotted off in Alix's direction.
Yeah, see you, Kate replied sadly, after she'd left. She turned back to Ethan, who looked half-asleep now, with his eyes glazed over and a bored expression stuck on his face. Sorry, Ethan, she said in a genuinely apologetic voice. It was funny to think that if this were high school, or even junior high, she'd yell at him for even slightly slouching. Now he was full-out not caring whether or not she saw him be bored to death, and it just made him even more attractive than she already found him. How could he be so nice like that? It was....unnatural. She wished he would just become a jerk already, so she could have some sort of reason to ignore him, hate him, and never talk to him ever again.
Something wrong? Ethan asked, with genuinely sympathetic, concerned eyes. Eyes Kate just wanted to melt into. Yet something was stopping her, some invisible force refused to let it happen. No, it just wasn't fair...if she wanted something, she'd get it! Wasn't that the Kate Sanders motto? With her head down, without blinking, tears began cascading down her face. Ethan, perplexed by the sudden outburst, apprehensively brought her to him. He gently held her, with her cheek on his, staining him with her own tears.
Like a small, vulnerable, impulsive child, her lips were pulled in the direction of his. They barely glided against his when he returned the kiss, slowly, maybe even a little reluctantly. There they were, standing there by the punch bowl in the middle of their junior high reunion, yet off in their own world somewhere. Though one can only stay there for so long. At one point or another, reality must faced against.
Ethan pulled away, still wanting to hold her but afraid something might happen again. And he couldn't run away--he'd experienced firsthand how much that hurt. But he didn't feel mature enough to stand here and pretend everything could be talked through. So there they stood.
In awkward silence.
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[A/N: LO SIENTO, GENTE! I'm so so sorry. Here's the dealy: my laptop has been broken for the past 2 or 3 months, and I just finally got it fixed! I had already started this chapter at the end of November (everything except the very end), so I didn't want to rewrite any of it. So I waited.
The ending was kind of impulsive, hahaha. I'm insane sometimes. I figure I've made you wait so long, I guess I'll give you some action this time around. W00t.
Please lemme know whatcha think and REVIEW. Gracias!]
